ST. LOUIS-- After yet another loss on typically glorious San Diego night in late June, the team that will win the 2013 World Series was miserable.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, the lightning-rod franchise dealing with a massive payroll, crushing expectations and lengthy laundry list of injuries, went to sleep that night 12 games under .500 and 9½ games out of first place in the National League West.

Hope remained, but it seemed almost foolish to think great things were on the near horizon.

“We had a lot of ground to make up,” outfielder Andre Ethier says with a wry smile.

But neither Ethier nor any of his Dodgers teammates—the healthy ones or the ones tied to the disabled list—had any idea how quickly this team would jump from last place to first place. And the Dodgers aren’t just in first place, they’re pretty much in complete command of the division, five full games ahead of the second-place Diamondbacks.

“They are definitely one of the best teams in all of baseball right now,” one rival scout told Sporting News.

In the 41 games since June 21, Los Angeles has won 33 times. That’s a ridiculous .805 winning percentage through about a quarter of the 162-game schedule.

“I think this is kind of what everybody expected us to be like,” ace lefty Clayton Kershaw says, before reconsidering a bit. “Well, maybe not quite (like this), but we were expected to compete and we’re getting in there.”

That’s putting it mildly.

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The team that will win the World Series has ditched rookie hazing in favor of rookie praising. Stroll into the Dodgers’ clubhouse and you’ll see players wearing a variety of t-shirts that extoll the virtues of 22-year-old sensation Yasiel Puig.

It’s not a coincidence that L.A.’s rise started a mere few weeks after the arrival of Puig, the much-hyped amateur free agent from Cuba who singled in his first MLB at-bat and hit two homers in his second game.

“He’s just brought so much energy to our team,” says veteran infielder Nick Punto, while sporting a shirt that says ‘Puig 66’ (think Route 66 sign) on the front and ‘No Speed Limit’ on the back. “And it’s a really comfortable shirt.”

With his skill set, Puig plays by different rules, for better or worse (hint: it’s almost all been for the better thus far). In Monday’s game against the Cardinals, for example, David Freese hit a two-out double to the wall in right-center. As Allen Craig raced around the bases, Puig picked up the ball and second baseman Mark Ellis went out to his proper relay position in the short outfield.

Punto went about 75 yards closer to home, because he knew better. Puig’s incredibly strong throw sailed over Ellis and right to Punto, who turned and fired to nail Craig at the plate in a game the Dodgers wound up winning by one run.

The play of Yasiel Puig has been key to the Dodgers' resurgence. (AP Photo)

“As Nick says, you have to know who’s throwing it in,” manager Don Mattingly said with a chuckle after the game.

Puig is hitting .372 on the season, with 11 homers, 25 RBI, seven stolen bases and a 1.024 OPS. The advanced statistics love him; since his arrival, he’s near the top in the NL in wOBA (.440), wRC+ (190) and ISO (.219). One scout told SN that he believes Puig has the talent to be an All-Star outfielder for years to come.

“Having a young kid like Yasiel Puig coming in and bringing excitement, yeah, it definitely woke up the team, I feel like,” closer Kenley Jansen says. “Everything started clicking. Hanley (Ramirez) came back. (Zack) Greinke came back.”

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The team that will win the World Series still isn’t exactly sure what it’s like to field a complete lineup. The Dodgers have dealt with an injury epidemic this season.

Let’s put it this way: The Dodgers have played 113 games, and only two players (Ethier and Adrian Gonzalez) have appeared in more than 91. Skip Schumaker was supposed to be a bench guy who played three or four times a week, but he’s third on the team with 91 games.

Kemp, the superstar who should have won the NL MVP in 2011, is on the disabled list. He’s played only nine times during this 41-game stretch. Ramirez, whose return from the DL in early June coincided with Puig’s arrival to help spark this extended stretch of greatness, has missed a couple days and likely will be out a few more, though he’ll avoid a stint on the DL. He’s hitting .361 with 11 home runs in 54 games this year.

It says a lot about what this team’s gone through that two superstars are sidelined and most people associated with the team consider this a relatively healthy group.

“It’s just kind of taken off. At this point, we’re just a pretty confident bunch,” Mattingly said. “I think these guys feel like we can win everywhere, and we feel like we’re going to win every night, pretty much. And we pretty much have, so there’s no reason not to think that.”

The Dodgers had their 15-game road winning streak snapped on Tuesday in St. Louis, but rebounded with a win Wednesday. They haven’t lost back-to-back games since that night in San Diego. They’re 16-3 since the All-Star break.

As the manager of baseball’s hottest team, it’s hard to believe that Mattingly came this close to being fired when the club was struggling in late May. That’s when he had a blunt conversation with Dodgers CEO/President Stan Kasten, Mattingly admitted before Tuesday’s game.

“Stan was really honest,” he said. “He, I think, didn’t want to do anything, but he said, ‘Donny, at some point, I’m going to have to do something.’ I understood, and I was fine with that. I understood that you can’t just let your team … at some point you need a different change, a different voice. If they’re not listening and it’s not going good, you’ve got to make a change just to make a change. You could be doing the best job you could possibly do, and it still wouldn’t make a difference. At some point, I get that. I get it.”

It’s safe to say Mattingly is no longer on the hot seat.

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The team that will win the World Series has the best left-handed starting pitcher in baseball at the top of the rotation and a impressive group of arms behind him.

Clayton Kershaw has been one of the few constant bright spots for the Dodgers this season. He leads the NL with his 1.91 ERA—he led the league in that category in 2011 and 2012, too—and has thrown at least seven full innings in 19 of his 24 starts.

During this 41-game stretch, the Dodgers have won eight of Greinke’s nine starts, and he has a 2.74 ERA in those games. Lefty Hyun-jin Ryu, the No. 3 starter, has a 3.15 ERA in 21 starts this season. Ricky Nolasco has a 3.00 ERA in six starts since the Dodgers traded for him in early July. Veteran lefty Chris Capuano, the No. 5 starter and possible playoff option should an opportunity arise, has thrown 13 shutout innings over his past two starts.

“You can talk about lots of things, but that pitching … starters have kept us in the game, and the games they haven’t, the bullpen’s come in and done a great job,” Mattingly said. “This has been sustained. This has been a long time.”

Kenley Jansen has locked down 10 consecutive save opportunities and has a 1.42 ERA since taking over the closer’s role full time. Lefties J.P. Howell (47 games, 2.11 ERA) and Paco Rodriguez (54 games, 2.25 ERA) have been excellent. And the bullpen might get a veteran addition if former Giants closer Brian Wilson, who saved the clinching game of the 2010 World Series for San Francisco and hasn’t been scored on in 11 2/3 career postseason innings, makes it back from Tommy John surgery. He pitched a 1-2-3 inning in a rehab appearance for the Dodgers’ Class A-advanced affiliate Wednesday.

“He’s going to give them some guts in the back end of their bullpen,” says an NL scout who was there for one of Wilson’s free-agent tryout sessions earlier this summer. “He has the makeup, and he’s in great physical shape. Assuming he progresses with his health and rehab, he should be fine. He’s like adding another piece that will help them in September.”

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The team that will win the World Series was completely miserable less than two months ago. Things have changed, to say the least.

“That was pretty frustrating,” Ethier says. “To right it the way we did was a little crazy itself, but at the same time, we knew what we were capable of doing, and our focus, it’s a good thing we never lost that.”

They never lost focus then, and they rarely lose games now.

And, as long as the injury epidemic stays away, they won’t drop many in October, either.